Team tennis wins title in rout

The chase for the Wimberley Texans Team Tennis State Championship began in the most unusual place.

The Wimberley parking lot.

It was there the Texans found something that turned out to be a good luck charm.

“We were loading to go to Fredericksburg for our Regional Quarterfinal match,” Head Coach Kenneth Gustafson said. “and there happens to be a JJ Watt card laying in the parking lot. One of the coaches said ‘Oh someone must have lost this’ and Coach Antoun said ‘No, no, no. He was waiting for us.’”

“I know it’s kinda silly, but it gets these kids fired up. JJ has been riding the bus ever since.”

Since then, the Texans knocked rival Fredericksburg, defeated Boerne in the Regional Final before advancing to the State Tournament.

There the Texans shutout Willis Point in the State Semifinals and eventually knocked out top ranked Ar gyle to bring home Wimberley’s first State Championship in Team Tennis.

“I was so proud of them”, Gustafson said. “Battle after battle they just kept bringing it. We were down so many times throughout this process and these kids did not quit.”

After leading Argyle 5-2 in the doubles round, the message for the Texans was to not win five matches, the amount needed to secure the victory, but win ten, which was every remaining match.

“I thought we did a much better job coming out super focused,” Gustafson said. “They felt the urgency and knew Argyle was going to throw everything they had at us but we kept fighting.”

In the game that clinched the State Championship for the Texans, senior Cooper Doss was in a third set tiebreak against one of Argyle’s best players.

Down 3-1 before being all tied up at 8-8, the crowd and the players gathered around Court 1 to see the victor.

“I felt good in the first set and alright in the second set,” Doss said. “When everyone started to crowd around the court, that’s when I knew this was going to be a match of the night. I got very nervous, but I fought through it.”

Scoring two straight points, Doss’ win sealed a state championship victory as his teammates mobbed him.

“It was so overwhelming,” Mackenzie Ursha said. “It’s the best feeling in the world, and I’m still in shock.”